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Dow Today: Home Depot (HD) Leads The Day Higher, International Business Machines (IBM) Lags

The Dow component that led the way higher today was Home Depot (NYSE:HD), which sported a 98-cent gain (+1.3%) bringing the stock to $79.69. Holding the Dow back today was International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM), which lagged the broader Dow index with a $1.66 decline (-0.8%) bringing the stock to $206.99.

Editor's Note: TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ( ^DJI) closed down 80.0 points (-0.5%) at 15,307. During the day, 819.2 million shares of the 30 Dow components have changed hands vs. an average daily trading volume of 590.4 million. The NYSE advances/declines ratio closed at 655 issues advancing vs. 2,375 declining with 117 unchanged.

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The Dow component that led the way higher today was Home Depot (NYSE: HD), which sported a 98-cent gain (+1.3%) bringing the stock to $79.69. Volume for Home Depot ended the day at 14.8 million shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 7.1 million shares.

Home Depot has a market cap of $113.77 billion and is part of the services sector and retail industry. Shares are up 27.3% year to date as of Tuesday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 2%.

The Home Depot, Inc. operates as a home improvement retailer. The company has a P/E ratio of 25.6, above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.

TheStreet Ratings rates Home Depot as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its impressive record of earnings per share growth, compelling growth in net income, revenue growth, notable return on equity and good cash flow from operations. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company is trading at a premium valuation based on our review of its current price compared to such things as earnings and book value.

Holding the Dow back today was International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), which lagged the broader Dow index with a $1.66 decline (-0.8%) bringing the stock to $206.99. This single loss is lowering the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 12.56 points or roughly accounting for 15.7% of the Dow's overall loss. Volume for International Business Machines ended the day at 5.1 million shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 4.3 million shares.

International Business Machines has a market cap of $230.19 billion and is part of the technology sector and computer software & services industry. Shares are up 8.9% year to date as of Tuesday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 1.8%.

International Business Machines Corporation provides information technology (IT) products and services worldwide. The company operates in five segments: Global Technology Services, Global Business Services, Software, Systems and Technology, and Global Financing. The company has a P/E ratio of 14.4, below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.

TheStreet Ratings rates International Business Machines as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its notable return on equity, growth in earnings per share, expanding profit margins and increase in stock price during the past year. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally high debt management risk by most measures that we evaluated.